Full-Time

Project Director-Water-La Metro

GHD

GHD

201-500 employees

Catalyzes regional engineering and construction innovation

Compensation Overview

$137k - $229k/yr

Long Beach, CA, USA + 3 more

More locations: Los Angeles, CA, USA | Irvine, CA, USA | San Diego, CA, USA

Hybrid

Three days on-site per week required.

Bachelor's, Master's

Category
Business & Strategy (2)
,
Required Skills
Sales
Data Analysis

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Requirements
  • Bachelor's or Master’s Degree in Engineering, Environmental Science, or similar.
Responsibilities
  • Serve as a trusted advisor to existing clients through direct project leadership and consistent delivery performance.
  • Maintain deep understanding of client priorities, funding realities, and community outcomes.
  • Represent client and community voices internally, shaping solutions and pursuits based on real delivery insight.
  • Build long-term client partnerships rooted in credibility, responsiveness, and results.
  • Lead or play a senior role in the delivery of key projects, ensuring outcomes align with client expectations and commitments made during pursuits.
  • Convert successful delivery into repeat work, expanded scope, and follow-on opportunities.
  • Identify growth opportunities emerging from active projects and ongoing client engagement.
  • Use delivery experience to inform strategy, pricing, risk assessment, and positioning.
  • Shape and lead pursuits where delivery experience, technical judgment, and client trust are critical differentiators.
  • Partner with Relationship Managers, Market Leads, and technical teams to pursue targeted opportunities.
  • Contribute to proposal strategy, messaging, and interviews with a focus on credibility and execution confidence.
  • Participate in contract negotiations with a clear understanding of delivery risk, resourcing, and outcomes.
  • In collaboration with Project Manager, oversee and be accountable for project performance, including scope, schedule, budget, quality, and client satisfaction.
  • Track and manage key performance indicators such as backlog, margin, and client health for assigned accounts.
  • Ensure compliance with applicable regulations, procurement requirements, and internal governance.
  • Provide clear communication and reporting to internal leadership on client performance and growth outlook.
  • Personal Capability Building: Act as subject matter expert in an area of technology, policy, regulation, or operational management for the team. Maintain external accreditations and in-depth understanding of current and emerging external regulation and industry best practices through continuing professional development, attending conferences, and reading specialist media.
  • Key Account Management: Ensure quality service and profitable business growth by managing a portfolio of complex customer relationships and/or a small team of account managers.
  • Customer Relationship Development / Prospecting: Develop and implement a relationship management plan for strategic, complex potential accounts to build key relationships at local and national levels. Coordinate the engagement of own organization with the customer organization to ensure effective two-way flow of information and resolution of issues.
  • Customer Needs Clarification: Consult with a range of customer representatives at different levels to identify the outcomes they require, introducing relevant internal specialists and utilizing their expertise to gather and analyze complex customer data, clarify medium- to long-term customer needs, and develop and agree to a specification of customer requirements.
  • Sales Opportunities Creation: Develop a personal network of senior managers within the business sector and represent the organization at business sector events. Obtain market intelligence, promote the organization, and enhance its reputation.
  • Sell Customer Propositions: Lead a cross-functional internal team (e.g., technical, commercial, and legal) to configure a complex tailored or bespoke product-and-services solution and associated contractual terms that meet the customer's mid- to long-term needs at a national/key operating-unit level. Negotiate agreement with the customer and internally with commercial colleagues to ensure that customer requirements are met at an acceptable level of profitability and cash flow, or, alternately, review and authorize complex sales proposals from team members that deviate from standard terms, escalating issues to senior management where appropriate.
  • Operational Compliance: Monitor and review performance and behaviors within area of responsibility to identify and resolve noncompliance with the organization's policies and relevant regulatory codes and codes of conduct.
  • Promoting Customer Focus: Develop internal marketing plans and work collaboratively with other departments to improve internal relationships and build strong external customer relationships.
  • Customer Relationship Management / Account Management: Develop and implement relationship management plans for complex existing customer accounts to identify and build relationships with relevant decision-makers and influencers within the customer organization and to enable effective two-way flow of information and resolution of issues. Manage ongoing relationships with identified customer segments to ensure their needs are met, providing themes, summary analyses, and recommendations for changes based on customer input.
  • Educational: Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in Engineering, Environmental Science, or similar.
Desired Qualifications
  • Professional Engineer license preferred

ECRi Hub is a collaboration platform by GHD and the Queensland Government that connects engineers, construction and resources startups, researchers, and businesses to develop and commercialize new technologies. It provides space and programs, including the Business Mentoring for Innovation, to guide regional innovators through product development and market entry. It differentiates itself through GHD’s industry expertise, government support, and a clear focus on accelerating commercialization within its sector. Its goal is to boost innovation and drive economic growth and competitiveness for Queensland and Australia by turning ideas into market-ready solutions.

Company Size

201-500

Company Stage

Grant

Total Funding

$300K

Headquarters

Mittagong, Australia

Founded

1927

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Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • GHD secured $110 million in NAVFAC contracts on March 31, 2025.
  • GHD won USACE Honolulu’s $190 million architecture-engineering IDIQ running through March 2030.
  • Toronto selected GHD for Humber Treatment Plant and Waterfront Toronto island infrastructure in 2025.

What critics are saying

  • GHD still sells commoditized consulting; AECOM, Arcadis, and Ramboll beat it on price.
  • Federal contract concentration exposes GHD to US appropriations shifts and procurement protests through 2030.
  • If project wins slow, GHD’s 16,594-headcount platform becomes expensive overhead versus leaner rivals.

What makes GHD unique

  • GHD’s 2024 RIM Architects acquisition expanded it into architecture-engineering for US federal work.
  • GHD’s people-owned model supports retention across 160 offices and 12,000-plus professionals globally.
  • GHD wins complex infrastructure roles spanning water, ports, defense, and transit.

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Benefits

Flexible Work Hours

Paid Vacation

401(k) Company Match

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